


Baby, we're meant to be

by thatgreenleaf



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Humor, Living Together, M/M, steve rogers has a baby
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-03 23:50:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6632038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatgreenleaf/pseuds/thatgreenleaf





	Baby, we're meant to be

~0~

He really doesn't mean much by it when he asks, “What do you think about getting a plant?”

Bucky looks at him, and keeps on looking. “You want a plant?” He asks slowly for the sake of clarification, and Steve shrugs a shoulder. Their arms brush when Steve leans more heavily against the railing.

“We could put it near the window facing the streets.” Steve suggests, and Bucky just blinks blankly, hair fluttering in the wind.

“Steve,” Bucky starts with care, and there’s a hint of something akin to regret in his tone as he informs Steve that, “I really don’t think we’re ready for a plant.”

Steve frowns. “Why not?” He demands, and can’t help the upset in his tone.

Bucky is annoying quick to jump at the opportunity that the question provides. “Well, for starters, we’ll have to water it every day.” The lack of reaction on Steve’s face prompts him to get to the real issue of, “It’ll shrivel up and die when we’re away on work for too long.”

“We’ll get a cactus. Those should make it till we get back.” They have to, since they manage to survive in the lack of water that deserts provide.

 “Right.” Bucky says slowly. “The one with the thorns.”

“I’ll keep it in my room. You won’t have to look at it, even.” Steve tries persuading him, but for some reason, Bucky is immediate in pressing his lips into a thin line and shaking his head to showcase the lack of support he has for a houseplant.

“Why do you want a plant so badly?” Bucky wants to know, and Steve answers with honesty that, “I just thought it’d look nice near the window.”

“Get a plastic one then.”

“Those aren’t real, Buck.”

“I know they’re not real, that’s what’s so convenient about them.”

Steve huffs in frustration, and goes back to leaning his hip against the railing. Bucky doesn’t, and remains standing in front of Steve. “If you want it that badly….” He starts after much deliberation, and Steve rushes to assure him, that, “it’s just a plant. We’re not getting one if it’s too much trouble.”

Bucky narrows his eyes at him, and when he realizes that Steve means what he says, Bucky nods lightly and rests an elbow beside Steve.

Natasha finds them on the roof of the Avengers headquarters moments later, and a glare is all she replies their comparatively polite greetings with. “Why are you guys never in the cafeteria like everyone else?”

Steve raises a brow at her sharp tone. “If you’d wished harder, maybe we would’ve shown up there.”

“You would’ve, if you’d gotten your phone fixed in time.” Natasha tosses his fixed phone back, raising her chin at Steve as he pockets it after muttering his gratitude. “I need to talk to you.” She tells Steve with urgency, completely ignoring Bucky standing there.

“I must be really good at blending into the scenery.” Bucky muses to himself and Natasha’s lips curl up into a small smile.

“There’s no need to feel left out. You’ll hear about it soon, but Steve has to be the first one to.”

“Why?” Steve asks, feeling uncomfortable at the attempts to be ushered away like this. “Has it got something to do with the Avengers?”

“I wish.” Natasha admits and the tightness around her eyes diminishes a little and she just looks unwilling, like what she was about to do didn’t please her even the slightest bit.

“Sharon needs to talk to you. She’s back in town. Check your phone for her address.”

No wonder she has that look on her face.

“She didn’t want to tell me that herself?” Steve can’t help the misery sipping into his words.

Bucky pointedly maintains his silence and just stares off very hard into a spot somewhere in the distance.

“Steve. Just go see her, will you? This is… the two of you need to meet face to face for this.”

A year.

Sharon disappears off the face of the Earth for over a year after claiming she needed to go away, and this is how he hears about her whereabouts.

The one time he actually tries to have a relationship with a woman and she falls off the radar after telling him ‘I can’t go along with this. You’re in love with him and _you don’t even know it’_.

Steve lets out a sigh.

“Fine.”

At least Sharon’s alive. It’s a relief to know that.

“I’ll meet you back at the apartment.” Bucky decides. They don’t have anything to do at the headquarters, anyways.

~0~

The address leads him to a posh looking apartment complex in Manhattan that has velvety red carpets in the hallway.

He has no idea what to expect when he buzzes the doorbell to Sharon’s apartment, and just steels himself up for when the door opens.

Sharon smiles jovially on seeing him. “Hey.” She opens the door wider and makes way for him. “Come in.”

He steps in and comes short at the sight of the boxes everywhere.

“You just moved in?” Steve asks awkwardly, not sure how to go about talking to her.

“Yeah.” Sharon gestures to the couches surrounding the table centered among the boxes, and Steve follows her to take a seat opposite her.

The apartment is… spacious, to say the least. It didn’t look like a place for just one single woman. The first guess he makes is that maybe she found someone while she was away. Steve is tempted to ask if she had, because he cared about her, and still does (just didn’t love her in the way she wanted him to).

“How you been?” Sharon takes the initiative to break the heavy silence.

“Good.” Steve clears his throat and clasps his hands together. “You?”

“I’m good.” Sharon replies immediately. “I watched the news. Seems like you’ve all had a busy year.”

“Yeah. Well, Loki making powerful friends can make that happen.” Sharon listens to him and nods along, and Steve hesitates. “Did you have a busy year too?”

Sharon drops her eyes to his clasped hands. “You could say that.”

“You could’ve called Natasha.”

Sharon grimaces guilty. She glances up to meet Steve’s earnest eyes. “I know. I’m sorry. I kind of…. I had to get away from everything.”

“ _Why_?”

Was he that bad?

So disappointing that she couldn’t bear being around him?

Maybe if he’d realized it on his own, that what he felt for her wasn’t even close to deep enough to be what she deserved, she wouldn’t have gone away.

“It wasn’t us.” Sharon rushes to clarify when she sees the look on his face. “We were good. It’s just- just- Don’t move.” She starts to get up.

“Stay here.” With that request, Sharon leaves for one of the rooms behind Steve.

Before he can make anything of it, she returns with a blonde baby cradled in her arms, and its drowsy blue eyes glance at Steve and keep on staring with a lot of irritation for a face so small.

“That’s a baby.” Steve points out the obvious, because it suddenly feels as if someone should point it out and then have it confirmed out loud.

“Yes.” Sharon confirms carefully. “This is a baby.” She says it slowly, as if teaching Steve that it’s a baby.

“It’s  _your_  baby.” Steve guesses. Sharon nods in confirmation. “Yep. My baby.”

“That’s why you were away.” Steve realizes. Sharon nods again, seating the baby in her lap. It loses interest in Steve, eyes bright and awake, and starts to reach unsteadily for the doily decorating the table.

“Also –now stay with me for this part and thank God that you’re not the hulk- it’s your baby too.”

The blue eyes were starting to look like his mom’s all of a sudden.

The shape of them. The color.

He sees the same pair blink back at him in the mirror every morning.

“Steve?”

God, the baby got a double dose of blonde hair. That nose could probably grow to look straight, just like Sharon’s.

Steve buries his face in his hands.

He’s having a hard time breathing, all of a sudden.

“Oh my God.” He moans and either it’s a coincidence or the baby finds joy in his panic because it makes a high-pitched excited noise.

“Are you okay? Steve? Steve!”

“Are you absolutely sure, Sharon?” Steve checks, his voice trembling the slightest bit. He realizes that it’s a silly question to ask, when Sharon has just told him that –that it’s his too, but they need to be sure here, because that's a _baby_ and _never_ in all his life had he ever given thought to just how a _kid_ will fit into his life -

“I’m sure. You’re the father.”

The baby makes gentle sounds of vowels in the quiet that follows.

Steve sucks in a slow breath, exhaling shakily through his mouth.

He’s a father.

It’s alright.

It’ll be fine.

They’ll be fine. The baby will be fine.

(But, what about _Bucky_ -)

Dragging his fingers down his face, Steve raises his head.

The baby is apparently interested in him again.

“How old?”

“Just over six months.”

_Six months, Jesus, and he’s meeting his baby only now-_

“Why didn’t you tell me _earlier_?”

“It was too dangerous, Steve. You’re Captain America and it was a bad time to be Captain America’s family.”

Steve makes a desperate noise out of all the frustration currently aimed towards this situation. “That’s not a good enough reason for not telling me! I wasn’t going to go around parading my baby for all my enemies to target!”

“I-“ Sharon sighs, looking extremely tired all of a sudden. “I know, I just panicked. I’m sorry. I found out and I wanted to keep it, but I just- I didn’t want you to stay because of the baby _and I know you would have_. I’m so sorry, Steve.” The last part sounds like it’s been wrenched from deep within her chest.

Steve opens his mouth and gapes for words but just can’t find any.

Sharon staying away because of him, their baby being half a year old before he knows about it, -It’s all too much at the same time.

( _Bucky_ -)

Sharon watches him in concern as he sighs, taking in steady calming breath and looking at his baby again.

It’s so small. He can probably pick it up with one hand. Was he that small as a child? Maybe it’s just him and Sharon that are too big.

The baby sneezes, making a tiny high sound as it does so, face pinching up in a way that makes Steve huff affectionately, and a sudden terrible thought hits him.

Did the baby get any of his hereditary medical conditions?

“Do you want in?”

Sharon breaks him out of his reverie.

“What?”

Her eyes bore into his with all seriousness. “Steve, do you want to be in the kid’s life? As the father?”

Steve frowns. “Of course I do.” He states without hesitation, arms stretching out for the baby. “I’m not going to abandon my child.”

Sharon hands it to him over the table separating them and oh God his baby is so tiny. His hands go around the baby’s waist for his fingertips to touch. Sharon lets go and the infant curls one of its hands around a tiny fistful of Steve’s jacket and kicks the air in excitement, chubby cheeks puffed up in effort.

“Don’t drop the baby.” Sharon warns him, and he doesn’t dare try to sneak a glance away from the baby to check if she’s joking or not.

Steve brings the baby close to him and starts leaning back on the couch so that he can rest it against his chest, hoping that it’s an alright position to hold the infant in. Putting one arm under the baby, he uses the other hand to support its back. The infant doesn’t complain and just keeps its head raised, wide shiny eyes darting all over his face, grabbing his jaw with stubby fingers that tickle and finding something interesting about it.

He breathes easier, heart starting to calm down when it looks like his kid doesn’t hate him immediately.

Sharon’s eyes are shiny, jaw clenched resolutely as she keeps her eyes fixated on the baby. When she feels him staring at her and looks up, her face crumbles but she doesn’t break eye contact with him.

Steve can feel his heart at his throat.

“I wish you’d told me sooner.” He complains again, with less heat this time, as he looks down at the round face making muted cooing sounds that he feels through his chest.

“I know.”

The baby pats at his jaw and tries to jump up with a demanding sound.

“What does it want?” Steve asks in panic and a watery chuckle tears out of Sharon’s throat.

“I have no idea.” She admits, and there’s sense of relief about her that wasn’t there before.

There’s another thing, though.

He can’t tell.

He- he’s trying to, but he can’t figure it out. The baby has a blue shirt on and tights that are stripped in a light pink and white pattern. There’s no bows or clips in its hair.

He puts his hands under the baby’s armpits to hold the baby some distance from him and study it, and the baby doesn’t seem to like that, but he still can’t tell.

“What’s wrong?” Sharon wonders curiously.

“Nothing. Nothing, just….. uh……” A diaper change would really help him right about now. He waits and the baby just rests a cheek against his chest and occasionally waves its arms around to the various parts of his jacket that are deemed to be of interest in that moment. Peering at the baby’s features doesn’t help, and in the end, he gives up.

The baby takes a hold of the thumb he offers. It’s when he decides to chance a guess with what he asks Sharon next, that he realizes the small smile he’d been gazing at the small person held protectively in his arms with.

“Did you name him?”

Sharon stares him with such blankness that he wonders if her brain has decided to call it quits for the day.

“Her?” Steve corrects himself meekly and Sharon buries her face in her hands.

~0~

Bucky opens the door to their apartment and two pairs of welcomingly familiar blue eyes stare back at him.

It takes a moment for him to realize that one pair belongs to Steve, and the other pair belongs to the blondest baby in the world that is currently occupying Steve’s arms with what looks like great comfort, and that two large powder blue bags full of baby supplies and another smaller one that has a giant cartoon animal of some furry sort on its front are hanging off of the man’s arms.

He’s not sure which pair of eyes look more widened in fright. The baby’s or Steve’s.

“Emily.” Steve says softly and tears his eyes away from Bucky to look at the baby.

“This is Bucky. My buddy.”

Steve looks at Bucky next and swallows with difficulty.

“Buck. This is Emily.”

The baby has Steve’s eyes.

Steve announces, “My daughter,” to which the baby spits her pacifier out for Steve to catch, and Bucky wonders if it’s too late to say yes to that houseplant.

~0~


End file.
